By William Mackay: Sebastian Contursi, the adviser for WBA World light welterweight champion Marcos Maidana (31-3, 28 KO’s), lashed out at Eddie Hearn, the promoter for unbeaten welterweight contender Kell Brook, saying he’s “Obsessed with Marcos Maidana,” in an interview with Irish-boxing.com.
Contursi said “This guy [Hearn] seems to become obsessed with Marcos Maidana. First he tried to make Maidana fight Paul McCloskey in Belfast and then he wanted Marcos to face Brook. After we rejected his offers because he just simply does not have the money, he started talking s*** about us.”
It looks like Hearn didn’t make much of an offer to Maidana for him to fight Brook. I figured as much. In fairness to Hearn, he’s over there in the UK and probably doesn’t know how popular Maidana has become in the United States. He’s become one of the most exciting fighters that are televised on HBO. Maidana may not win all the time, but he makes it exciting against almost everyone.
The one exception was his move up to welterweight last February when Maidana was beaten by the much faster Devon Alexander, who used a punch and grab strategy to smother Maidana’s offense completely. Maidana might have done better in that fight with a different referee working the fight, one that penalized for excessive clinching but this one let Alexander clinch without taking points off. Clinching 10+ times per round, Alexander was able to ride out every round this way by getting his shots off first and then immediately grabbing Maidana in a bear hug.
Hearn really needs to find a legitimate big name for his fighter Brook to fight, as he’s been matched softly his entire career and he’s still not facing the guys he needs to be fighting. Hearn could have had a fight against Alexander recently but wanted him to fight in July and in the UK. Alexander, the better known and much more established fighter, said no to that and suggested that Brook come over to the United States to fight him in August. However, Brook and Hearn weren’t interested in that. The word is Brook and Hearn are looking at fighting Carson Jones next. That’s a step up from Matthew Hatton but not a big one. There are arguably better fighters than Jones out there, but he is a relatively safe choice for Brook, so it’s in keeping with the guys that he’s been matched against in terms of not being a threat to beating Brook. Carson Jones isn’t a big name either.
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